Brownie Bites: 5 of 6 draft picks signed by Browns as rookie minicamp kicks off

BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns handled a significant amount of business prior to the start of rookie minicamp with the signing of 13 draft picks and undrafted free agents.

Here’s the top Brownie Bites from rookie minicamp on Friday.

Welcome to the NFL – This weekend is an opportunity for the Browns to give their rookies a crash course in life in the NFL. “The emphasis on this on today, on certainly this week is on the teaching and learning, not just the system, but getting to know our teammates and them, getting to know the coaches, the staff, et cetera,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. In addition to practice, which is position group drill based, players are attending meetings where they learn about drills, the offensive, defensive and special teams schemes as well as off the field team-player engagement. “We love having rookies in the building because they're seated in their chairs 15 minutes prior to the meeting. All the notebooks are open, pencils in their hand, very eager learners,” Stefanski said. “Same thing out here. I think the walkthrough this morning started at 10:45 and I think by 10:25 all of them were out here. So a little bit different than their veteran counterparts, but really fun work, fun for us to put them in a helmet, put them through an individual drill.”

Zinter time – Third-round pick Zak Zinter, as he said he would during the draft, was on the field and did not look at all limited as he went through offensive line drills Friday. “He looks good,” Stefanski said. “He's comfortable. He's working very hard with Andy and Roy and those guys. Just really pleased with where he is, but he looked comfortable to me.” Zinter, who is scheduled to speak Saturday, suffered multiple leg fractures during the Ohio State-Michigan game last November when new teammate and former Buckeyes defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. accidentally rolled into him.

Found his why – It’s awfully hard for seventh round picks to make it in the NFL, but Browns seventh rounder Jowon Briggs is easy to root for. “Everybody has their 'why,' but it's a big thing to have your why and it's a big thing to love,” the defensive tackle out of Cincinnati said. “It's a really big thing to love football, but it's a little bit different when you have somebody else depending on you, and I got four people depending on me immediately. So that kind of amps up the urgency to things and just really makes me take advantage of every single second out there.” The married father of three, who is anxious to get his young family to Cleveland, has been riding an emotional high ever since his name was called on that Saturday afternoon in Detroit but he can’t forget the journey to get here, which included being forced to transfer from Virginia to Cincinnati so he could better care for his wife and first child. He worked at a chicken and ice cream shop to pay the bills in the offseason. It taught him to plan ahead for anything. He graduated early with a degree in interdisciplinary studies and a certificate in in software development. “I feel like it'll give me more job flexibility,” Briggs said, “being able to go back and get something, say like a graduate certificate in cybersecurity or graduate because mine is in software development, maybe grad certificate and just general computer engineering. So just making sure that I put my hand in every basket I can when I get.” Briggs’ musical talents will make him a hit during the training camp ‘rookie show’ too. “Music has been a big thing in my family,” Briggs said. “I like to be eclectic. I decided to look at all them and try to do everything… So I fooled around on the piano. I have saxophone at home. There's a flute floating around. There's bass guitars, electric guitar. My son broke my electric guitar, I don't have it, he actually broke it in half, so I got to get a new one. I had an acoustic guitar, gave it away to a friend at UVA as a keepsake. But yeah, just making sure that I kind of keep that around. I like my kids to be able to pass that down as well. So I think it's important.”

Catch and gun – Jamari Thrash, a fifth-round pick out of Louisville showed some good hands Friday catching footballs. He came into rookie camp aiming to show off his versatility. “Playing inside, outside, whether that’s running down, being a gunner on special teams, being a punt returner, whatever they want me to do,” Thrash said. To his point, Thrash ran a few gunner drills on special teams during Friday’s practice. With a crowded receiver room, where he fits on the roster remains to be seen. “They haven’t told me anything,” Thrash said. “Right now I’m just playing my role, doing everything a day at a time, just making plays when the opportunity presents itself.” Next week thrash will get to begin working with the veterans, including Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore, an opportunity he is looking forward to. “When I get in the room with those guys, I’ll be able to dissect and learn different things from those guys, different techniques and different strategies when it comes to playing football,” Thrash said.

Live and learn – After a pair of run ins with law enforcement for a drag racing incident and suspected DUI, Nathaniel Watson has gotten his life on track. “Young and dumb,” Watson said. “I mean happens to a lot of young people. So I mean I really don't look too much back into it. It is a learning process, [to] learn from all of my mistakes.” Watson has his focus forward on doing what he can to show the Browns they were right to invest a sixth-round pick on him. “ I'm thankful for the opportunity that Browns called me,” Watson said. “At the Senior Bowl, had a good time with coach Eph[raim Banda], the safety coach. So me and him chopped it up a lot. I had a feeling I was going to come to the Browns. I just didn't know when. He told me they were going to get me, so I mean, yeah, he wasn't lying.” Listed at 233 pounds, Watson’s size appealed to the Browns. “There [aren’t] too many linebackers that can blitz, cover and stop and run,” Watson said. “And me personally, I think I got all three of them phases.” Watson, who used to score plenty of touchdowns in high school, doesn’t miss the offensive side of the ball. “I get my happiness out of knocking people out,” Watson said.

1 to go – The Browns announced Friday morning that they signed five of their six draft picks prior to the start of camp – Zinter, Jamari Thrash, Nathaniel Watson, Myles Harden and Jowon Briggs. Second round pick Mike Hall Jr. is the lone selection not signed. With the rookie contract wage scale in place since the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, getting rookie deals done quickly has become commonplace in the NFL.

UDFAs – With much of the roster already spoken for, the Browns only signed seven undrafted rookie free agents following the NFL Draft – Miami guard Javion Cohen, Arizona State safety Christopher Edmonds, South Dakota State cornerback Dyshawn Gales, Weber State linebacker Winston Reid, Brigham Young running back Aidan Robbins, Rhode Island offensive tackle Lorenzo Thompson, South Carolina receiver Ahmarean Brown and Wyoming tight end Treyton Welch.

Camp breakdown – A total of 27 players are participating this weekend – six draft picks, eight undrafted free agents, seven tryout players and six first year players. “We really don't care whether you're drafted or you're a college free agent or you're on tryout for us right now,” Stefanski said. “This is an evaluation period, so all of those guys will get a fair shot as we look at them and see how they do in the meeting room, see how they do out here on the practice field. I've been around guys that have really impressed in a rookie minicamp and turned that into a job, so that does happen. So we are certainly looking at all these players and seeing how each of them could help us in the future.”

Making room – Construction continues between the practice fields and the Casey Coleman Field House on a three-story addition to the facility. The first floor will feature additional player space and an open air style weight room, the second floor will make way for additional employee space and a virtual reality room where players can go through walk throughs and plays with coaches and the third floor will be a VIP balcony for viewing practice during training camp. The Browns are also full steam ahead on a $195 million mixed use development project to be built on 16 acres of land acquired in recent years by the team next to the facility. There is optimism construction on a new rec center and community field for the city of Berea, dorms for Baldwin Wallace University, a hotel, retail space, University Hospitals sports medicine center, parking garage and Haslam Sports Group/Browns administration building will begin later this summer. The city of Berea has applied for a $15 million grant from the state of Ohio to help build the field and rec center and state lawmakers are working to include the projects in this year’s capital budget which should be completed over the next few weeks. The cost of the rest of the project, approximately $180 million, is being privately financed by the Browns and their developer.